Woman’s Son Arrested in Her Fatal Shooting

At 12:01 a.m. on Christmas morning, Patricia Ann Ricks and her grown children were wrapping gifts in the living room of her apartment in a working-class neighborhood of southwest Los Angeles.

Suddenly, shots rang out and Ricks, 50, slumped to the floor, mortally wounded. The gunman, her 21-year-old son, Robert Ricks Jr., fled out the door and escaped in his car, homicide detectives said.

The suspect, described as armed and dangerous, was arrested Monday afternoon on suspicion of murder. He was being held in jail in lieu of $1-million bail.

His sister had issued a tearful plea for him to surrender. “Bobby, we want you to turn yourself in, honey,” Inez Crenshaw, 31, sobbed at a midmorning news conference outside the Southwest Division police station.

After a tip from an area resident a few miles from the killing, an elaborate perimeter was established and officers from two LAPD divisions searched block by block.

They found the suspect about 1:45 p.m. hiding in a backyard in the 3100 block of Hobart Boulevard, said Southwest Division Det. Jeff Nolte.

Detectives were nearby when Robert Ricks Jr. was found. “He didn’t run, shoot, fight or cuss or anything,” Nolte said. “He was cooperative.”

He showed no remorse, detectives said, and complained that he wanted to get some sleep.

Detectives remained unsure of the motive for the killing at the apartment in the 5500 block of Homeside Avenue. Detectives said they believed that relatives who may have been witnesses needed time to grieve before being questioned.

“We haven’t been real prying on the family members,” Nolte said. “We’re letting those people heal a little bit.”

The shooting occurred as family members were making holiday preparations, he said.

“They were all getting prepared for Christmas,” said Nolte. “They were wrapping presents, baking pies, all the things you would normally do on Christmas.”

Patricia Ricks, who was living on disability, was the mother of four children, ages 13 to 31.